Russian pair lead ice dancing after compulsory dance in Vancouver
VANCOUVER. February 20. KAZINFORM World champions Okasana Domnina and Maxim Shabalin didnot seem to be affected by the dispute around their original dance costumes as they led the ice dancing table after Friday's compulsory dance at the Vancouver Olympic Winter Games; Kazinform refers to Xinhua.
Dancing to the "Tango Romantica" at the Pacific Coliseum, Domnina and Shabalin, who have teamed up with each other for eight years, scored a season best of 43.76 points with their crisp steps, beating home favorite Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir to the second place.
The Russian pair, who withdrew from the 2009 European championships due to Shabalin's knee injury, claimed their second Euro title last month with an aboriginal theme in original dance, which was considered "very offensive" to an Australian elder Sol Bellear and put them in storm recently.
"We are very satisfied with our skating today. We were working very hard in the past three weeks and we feel more confident after the European Championships," said Shabalin at a post-match press conference. "We are looking optimistically into the next few days."
He played down the extra pressure on their shoulder after Evgeni Plushenko failed to win a gold medal in figure skating for the Russian delegation; Kazinform cites Xinhua.
See http://www.xinhuanet.com/english2010/ for full version